


Tough as Nails

by Xycuro



Category: Daredevil (Comics), Marvel, Punisher (Comics)
Genre: Comic Book References, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Making Out, One Shot, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:02:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28398126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xycuro/pseuds/Xycuro
Summary: Matt gets invited as Frank's plus one for an undercover mission and he finds out about a certain tool Frank uses.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Matt Murdock
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	Tough as Nails

  
  
  


"Careful, a waiter is walking over with a tray of champagne glasses to your left." 

  
  


Matt said softly to Frank, who managed to smoothly evade the waiter while also guiding Matt with him. That was one crisis averted, now they had to worry about the other possible ones. 

The gala was packed tonight with people all around the city, waiting for the bidding to start and for the band to play. Matt didn't plan on spending the night in a fancy gala as a plus one, but the Punisher can be a very convincing person. Frank was tasked to obtain a few blueprints and safe codes from the host of the gala, who was also in charge of the bidding tonight. They had multiple prized artifacts and jewels that many entrepreneurs and collectors were dying to get their hands on. Matt was surprised over the fact that Frank managed to get himself invited to a gala, but then it was revealed that Micro forged some invitations here and there and well, it wasn't that much of a surprise anymore. It's not like the host would recognize every single one of his guests anyway.

While the host himself wasn't necessarily a criminal, a few of the guests were a part of crime families. They seemed to be interested in some of the artifacts as well. As much as Matt wanted to follow these guests to question them about any operations, that was not their mission. Matt had to keep his focus on finding the room that had the safe and blueprints. They can always follow up another time. 

"It's a little bit less crowded at the far right corner," Frank mentioned as they continued to walk through the crowd. "You wanna go over there?"

Matt nodded, grateful that Frank was considerate enough to find a somewhat quiet spot. Even though the gala itself wasn't bustling with commotion, it was still a lot of people surrounding them. A lot of heartbeats, small talk, clinking glasses, and soft laughter that were too close to Matt, so a vacant corner in the room would be perfect for his radar sense. When they reached the corner, Matt focused on the building, listening for any floor that may be busy with guards rather than guests. The third floor upstairs proved to only have heavy boots pacing back and forth. Bingo. 

"Third floor," Matt said casually. "There are a few guards at the third-floor pacing back and forth across the rooms. I'm guessing that's where the safe and blueprints are."

Frank took a sip from his champagne glass before nodding. "There should be an alternative route to get there. Micro said there were a few ceiling windows at the rooftop." 

"The windows are connected to the alarm system as well," Matt noted. "If you manage to lock pick them, it's going to alert everyone." 

"Who said anything about lock picking?" Frank asked, almost smugly from what Matt picked up. "I know how to open them without setting off the alarm. Trust me."

Whatever Frank was planning, Matt could only hope it was a good plan. 

They continue to maneuver the gala with ease as people would move out of the way from the sound of the cane tapping. The band was going to play before the bidding, so Matt thought it was best to sneak up to the third floor when everyone was distracted. The only issue was to make sure whoever was on the second floor didn't pay attention to them working their way to the third floor. 

"Band's about to play," Frank told him, and Matt heard a group of people carrying instruments walk up to the stage. "Wanna get going?" 

"Let's wait until they start playing and then we get going," Matt said before adding, "I want to know what they're going to play, this party is boring."

Frank snorted at the comment, and soon the band began to play. Everyone had their attention on them, it was the perfect chance to slip away. To be fair, if Matt wasn't on a mission he would've gladly enjoyed the show too. But the guards were starting to spread out on different sections of the floor. They had a chance to sneak in now. 

The two of them moved away from the crowd and began to head upstairs. The second floor was perfectly fine to roam about and chat with other guests in private, but the third floor was off-limits. Good thing Matt knew how to find alternative ways into restricted areas and Frank can easily play along in convincing others as well. One of the guards from the third floor came down the stairs, and they waited for a moment before Matt gave the clear. So far, the other guards are still scattered around the third floor, and they needed to get in without getting caught. It was a game of stealth at this point, with Matt signaling Frank to move forward as he kept listening to the guards' footsteps.

"Over here," Frank said, and they slipped into a nearby room quickly. Matt folded his cane and kept it at his hip for now. 

"This looks like some random guest room," Frank whispered as he approached a large window. "Good thing this is a bay window; there's a nearby rooftop that can give us some ground to walk to the room with the blueprint."

"Wait, don't open the window," Matt said softly, running his fingertips tips against the frame. The soft humming of a current warned him about the sensors set in place if anyone were to open them. "They're connected to the alarm, remember? It'll give us away the second you lift them." 

"Well, you don't gotta worry about me opening it that way." 

Matt furrowed his brows. "How are you going to open it then? You didn't bring any gear with you." 

Frank chuckled softly before saying, "You're gonna have to cover your ears for that."   
  


Why did he need to cover his ears?   
  


Before Matt had the chance to ask, Frank turned around and suddenly a sharp, scratching sound bombarded Matt's ears. It wasn't extremely loud, but it had an awful ring to it that reminded him of metal against the glass. What the hell was Frank using? He didn't sense anything else on the other man, and it almost sounded like Frank was… 

_Scratching_ _the window with his own nails._

After a few minutes of whatever the hell was happening, a large chunk of the bay window was pushed out, crashing against the rooftop. It was too far from where they were for any of the guards to hear, but it was still a sound Matt hated to hear. 

"Alright, we can go through," Frank said, almost gleefully, which was strange. 

"Frank, what did you use to cut the glass?" Matt asked. 

"Oh, I used my diamond-tipped manicure," Frank answered, wiggling his fingers.

_Huh…_

"Your… your _what?"_

"You heard me right the first time, Red. My diamond-tipped manicure." 

_A_ _diamond-tipped manicure…_

  
  


"Red, we should go before one of the guards walks in on us."   
  


… Alright then. 

Matt followed Frank into the opening, making sure to pull the curtain behind them just in case. They avoided landing on the glass as best as they could, but Matt didn't care about the glass shards at the moment. He was still stuck on what Frank just told him.  
  


Three questions popped into his mind:

_What?_

_How?_

And _What?_ Again, but louder. 

They followed along the side of the rooftop, and Frank warned Matt about his god damn fingernails again before cutting the glass. They both made sure there were no cameras around as they entered the opening carefully. Outside the door, the guards were starting to switch around, so they had to be quick about retrieving the blueprints. However, Matt was still too busy pondering over the fact that Frank cut through glass with his _god damn fingernails._

"You good?" Frank asked, keeping his voice down. 

"I have so many questions," Matt simply responded in a whisper. 

"Don't worry, they're just press-ons," Frank said as he grabbed the flash drive containing the blueprints and safe codes, tucking it away in his pocket. He said it as if that was the answer to all Matt's questions— which it _wasn't._ Not in the slightest bit. "Let's go."

They repeated the same action they did earlier, moving back to the rooftop while keeping themselves hidden. When they entered the first room they were in, Matt heard one of the guards approaching the door. 

"Shit, someone's coming we need to get out of here," Matt hissed. 

Frank glanced at the window, covering the opening with the curtain again. He then went ahead and grabbed Matt by the blazer and pulled him closer.   
  


"Frank what are you—" 

Matt didn't get the chance to ask his question, because he was too busy dealing with Frank's mouth against his, kissing him in a heated fashion that immediately made Matt return the kiss. The question was thrown out the window as Matt pinned Frank against the wall, nipping at his bottom lip while Frank's hands were running all over him. His hands tugged at Matt's blazer and ruffled up his shirt and tie, the diamond-tipped nails scraping lightly against the fabric. Matt knew what they were supposed to be doing. He's done this before in a few gala operations with Elektra and Natasha, it wasn't new. Although, this was something he didn't expect Frank to go along with so easily. And the moans they were making as they kissed each other was far off from sounding like they were pretending. 

The guard opened the door with a gun in his hand, and the two quickly stopped their little makeout session.   
  


"What the—"

"Oh fuck! We're so sorry…" Frank laughed, playing drunk as the guard lowered the gun. He purposely swayed his head a bit, stumbled slightly in his footing, and slurred his voice. "We just uh, wanted some privacy y'know what I'm sayin'?" 

Matt got the hint and also pretended to be drunk, snickering as he pressed his face into Frank's chest. He was laughing at both their acting and the situation as a whole. 

The guard pressed the communicator in his ear. "It's alright, it's just a couple of drunks that snuck up in here," He then pointed over towards the door. "Alright, you two get out. This floor is off-limits." 

"Sure thing," Matt giggled as Frank lazily dragged him out of the room and down the stairs. Luckily, the party was already starting to settle down once the bidding was done, with a few guests already leaving the building. After they exited the building and reached the alleyway where Frank had parked the truck, the two started bursting into laughter again. 

"Christ, that was _bad,"_ Frank said, commenting on their acting. "Did that asshole actually fall for it?" 

Matt nodded. "He thought we were drunk off our minds. Maybe our acting was that good." 

"Yeah right; we were both terrible." 

"Whatever you say, at least that was a lot better than the damn diamond-tipped manicure," Matt decided to bring that up again because he still had a lot of questions. "Seriously, why didn't you just bring a glass cutter?" 

Frank sighed. "I would've had a hard time sneaking it in, and I don't have enough pocket space for one. The manicure was the next best thing." He opened the truck doors for the two of them to enter. 

"Where did you even get diamond-tipped press-ons anyway? Who would _make_ them?" Matt asked. 

"I don't know, all I know is that Micro originally had a bunch of them lying around," Frank explained. "Someone had them ready for his wife to use in case she ever needed to defend herself or something. She never did, and Micro didn't want to throw them away or anything, so I decided to use them instead, especially when I had to open some metal crates."

"You know how to use press-ons?" 

"They're not hard; you buff up and dehydrate your nails, put on nail glue, and press them onto your nails, that's it. Maria used to have press-ons for a bit, especially for fancy occasions," Frank chuckled softly, the memory of his past still fond to him. "She's asked me to do it for her plenty of times for me to know how they work. I had to use the middle finger and thumbnail sizes for them to fit me." 

"They caught me off guard, I'll give you that," Matt said. Out of all the sounds, he still can hear the sound of the blazer's thin fabric being sliced when they were ruffling up their clothes. 

Frank slowly stopped the car in front of Matt's apartment building, setting it to park. It was late at night for anyone to be around, but Matt didn't have to worry about sneaking up to the rooftop access in his Daredevil suit. Before they had to do the mission, the gala was nice overall, and Matt had a great time with it.

As they got to Matt's floor, Frank decided to continue the conversation. 

"So the press-ons caught you off guard and not the kiss?" 

"Well, I mean, _yes._ The kiss also caught me off guard too, but what got me was that you were the one that initiated it." 

"Oh yeah?" 

Matt scoffed. "I've done it before, so it felt more like an idea I would suggest." 

"Oh, so you've thought about it before, huh?" 

Matt paused for a moment before recollecting his thoughts. "I— wait a minute, we're talking about the nails here." Damn it, Matt, don't go red in the face now.

"And I'm changing the subject to what we _should_ talk about instead," Frank responded gruffly. "I wanted to go for the lazy drunk kiss, but you were clearly thinking about it being something else from the way you kissed me." 

"Maybe I'm just a good kisser," Matt jabbed. 

"I'll give you credit, you are," Frank agreed with him, heat rushing to his face. "But I guess that was enough to convince the guard that we were two drunk idiots looking for a hook-up." 

"I'm not looking for a hook-up," Matt blurted out, and he was slowly starting to regret saying that. For God's sake, maybe he _was_ drunk after all. 

Frank's heartbeat began to beat rapidly after hearing what Matt implied. Knowing Frank for this long, that has _never_ happened before, even in tough or frightening situations. The Punisher always had a steady heartbeat, and for it to speed up after Matt suggested something a little more than being allies was already saying a lot. 

"Is that so?" Frank asked carefully. 

Might as well go with it. "Yes, I wouldn't mind," Matt said lightly. In all honesty, Matt had wanted to make a move on Frank for a while now, and even though that kiss was just a cover-up, it still meant something, right? 

"... I'm not good at planning out dates," Frank said. "So you got anything in mind?" 

"Wait, is that a yes?" 

"You tell me, Red. Do you want to go out later this week or nah?" 

Matt didn't expect to get this far, but hey, a date wasn't going to hurt him. 

"Yes, I'll have time this week," Matt said. "There's the new coffee shop that opened up down a few blocks. Having lunch there tomorrow doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Frank chuckled softly. "No, it doesn't." He then quickly added. "I won't be wearing the press-ons."

Matt rolled his eyes, but couldn't help but grin. "I don't know why you would in the first place, but good."

"Good," Frank repeated. "See you tomorrow, Red."   
  


"Good night, Frank." 

  
  


It was a date then.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I know this was really quick and rushed out, but ever since I found out that Frank used press-ons in the 1987 comic series (#1 and #2), I was never the same again. I had to write something about it and of course, I squeezed in some fratt. I'm a nail artist and I know how to do nail shit, it blew my god damn MIND seeing Frank apply press-ons. Anyway, that was it. I turned on Grammarly and left it at that, hoped you guys enjoyed it. Brb, gonna go play tf2 now.


End file.
